Tuesday, 26 November 2002  
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Lanka, Madagascar FTA in the offing

by Shirajiv Sirimane

Sri Lanka is to formulate a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Madagascar early next year, Chairman of the Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Authority Prof. G. Dharmaratne said.

Prof. Dharmaratne told a press conference that talks in this regard with the Madagascar Consul are already in progress and when an agenda is formulated it will be forwarded to the government for approval. "Sri Lankan businessmen as well as employees who are engaged in Gem business and mining in Madagascar complain that they come across many problems. When a trade agreement is formulated both countries will have easy access to do business," he said.

Referring to the 'Daily News' news item published last Thursday highlighting the difficulties faced by the Thailand Gem merchants in Sri Lanka, he said that the Gem and Jewellery Authority encourages the presence of Thai nations. "What we want them to do is to abide by the Trade laws of the country. Earlier, they were requested to deposit US$ 10,000 but in fairness to them we have reduced this amount to US$ 5,000. But we will not allow any one to export rough stones," he said.

He said that officials of the Gem and Jewellery Authority have already made representations to the Thai Ambassador explaining the situation and this situation is now under control.

"We want to emphasise the fact that we will not discriminate any nationality from doing gem business in Sri Lanka."

Prof Dharmaratne added that the media has overplayed the issue where light machinery was used for mining.

"We issue around 4,000 permits for mining per year and only six permits are issued for very light mechanical mining." He said that permits for mechanical mining are only awarded for abandoned land or for areas such as Lunugamwehera where there are no traces of gems. "However we maintain a close eye on this kind of miners." The Chairman said that the authority has formulated a series of plans to develop the gem industry in Sri Lanka and to introduce value and technology for the industry.

"We will relocate our main sales office to the World Trade Centre in a bid to attract a better clientele. We are also planning a major showcase and to set up an information centre at the Colombo International Airport's departure and arrival lounges.

The Authority has decided to present a national plan for the 'auction of gem lands' well in advance next year. He said that over 50% of the transactions in most of the banks are in the Pawn broking business and some of the techniques used to value gems are primitive. "If a person is to pawn the same item on about three occasions one can see that the gem stone is stretched and sometimes even damaged.

This is because there is no proper technology used to value the item."

He said that the Authority is planning to conduct a series of workshops for employees in the pawn broking business. The Chairman said that frauds amounting to several millions of rupees are going on in this line of business but they are hushed up and hardly attract public attention. The most up-to-date laboratory will be built next year for the industry, he said.

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